Interlude:

Frank stood at the counter of her hotel room in Moose Tow proper, pouring herself a stiff drink. At the moment, she was dressed in a nice suit, one that didn’t quite fit her as well as her own custom-made suits did, but it would have to do for now. She always preferred wearing nice suits when possible as they always helped her feel more focused and professional.

Many Labyrinth zone towns had shops to buy, sell, or trade clothing and similar items for players who travelled between entrances, and Moose Tow was no different. The local shop had a much better clothing collection than she’d expected.

A minute later, Frank sat down and took sip of her whiskey before she began preparing one of the cigars she’d bought. She’d always been an aficionado in her old life, but these days, she rarely had time to savor a fine cigar.

Once her cigar was lit and going, Frank leaned back and closed her eyes. At that moment, she almost felt like her old self. Almost. Her current career was a lot more violent, at least physically, but there was also a certain satisfaction that came with getting so hands-on.

“From raiding corporations to raiding the Labyrinth,” Frank chuckled to herself. “Quite a change indeed.”

Her new life had quite a few differences from her old one, her new body and the power that came with it being the most notable. In spite of what some people might assume, she considered her new appearance to be an asset rather than a liability. In fact, that body came with quite a few unexpected benefits, ones that she was quite happy to take advantage of.

Of course, her current situation also came with a number of complications, legal and financial ones that she found quite intolerable. That was why she was working with her current business partners. Together, they would rectify those complications, one way or another. Their growth was slow, but once they had enough resources and manpower, then they could begin making larger moves.

Just then, the hotel room door opened up and Jag stormed in, loudly complaining, “Fucking NPCs…”

“Oh?” Frank asked.

“Some fucking idiots on the street gawking at me,” Jag explained with a deep scowl. “They don’t even have the balls to go inside the zone, much less the Labyrinth, but for some damn reason, they think they can get away with staring at me.”

Frank chuckled at that, then took a sip of her drink. “I suspect that will change once we’re ready to begin…lobbying.”

“Lobbying?” Jag asked with a chuckle. “Is that what you call it?”

Frank just took a puff from her cigar. “What else?”

Jag held up her hand and began counting off on her fingers. “Bribery. Assault. Extortion. Racketeering.”

“Be careful about mentioning those words around Stine,” Frank reminded her. “He won’t admit it, but you know how touchy he is about that kind of thing.”

“Of course,” Jag responded dismissively. “For such a badass, he can be a bit of a pussy at times.”

“Remnants of his past life, I’m sure,” Frank agreed pleasantly.

She was about to say something else when the phone began to ring. She’d been waiting for this call back so immediately answered it.

“Hello, Maestro,” Frank said. “I hope your meeting went well.”

“As well as could be expected,” Maestro’s voice came from the other end. “I think that I was able to sway them to our way of thinking.”

“That’s good,” Frank responded, nodding along even though Maestro couldn’t see it. “And if we need to reinforce that, we can always exert more pressure later.”

“Precisely,” Maestro replied. “Now then, how was your delve?”

“It was a fucking disaster,” Jag answered, loud enough for Maestro to hear.

“A disaster?” Maestro asked.

“The original objectives were nearly a complete failure,” Frank admitted. “One of our clients was removed before we went into the Labyrinth, then we lost the remaining two to an unexpected monster.”

“It’s too bad,” Jag grumbled from beside Frank. “Antony was just starting to get interesting, too.”

“I had hoped that we might be able to get at least one recruit from this batch,” Frank explained. “We didn’t really lose any assets though, which is fortunate. The problem is that the threat forced us to end the delve early, before we were able to gather as many resources as we’d hoped.”

Maestro responded from the other end of the phone. “That is unfortunate but understandable. As you say, not every investment pays off.”

Frank chuckled faintly at that, then took a sip of her drink. “We may not have gathered the expected resources, but this investment may have paid off in other ways. It seems that we were able to gather some information instead.”

With that, Frank began to explain what they’d found at what should have been the Northern Territories exit, and what Giles had told him about the other entrances. Maestro listened intently, though he had some extra questions about the information they’d gotten from the Warden.

“Very interesting,” Maestro mused once Frank was finished. “Very interesting indeed.”

“Yes,” Frank agreed. “But there is one more thing.”

“Oh?” Maestro responded, sounding curious.

Frank asked, “You know how our supplier keeps asking to examine my axe?”

“Michaelangelo is annoyingly persistent,” Maestro responded, sounding a little tired. “But he does have a point. If he is able to learn how to make soulbound items the way he can make those scepters…”

“Well, I found someone else with a soulbound item,” Frank explained with an almost predatory smile. “A rookie player who should be easy to…coax into helping.”

There were several seconds of silence before Maestro responded. “Very good. Michaelangelo will be happy, and this will likely benefit the rest of us in the future.”

“That was my thinking as well,” Frank said.

They talked for another couple minutes before ending the call. By then, they had a plan for how to move forward.

Jag gave an evil chuckle. “I can’t wait to see the look on Mike’s face when he actually gets his hands on a soulbound artifact. That mad bastard will be over the fucking moon.”

----------

The figure in a tattered cloak stepped into a new area of the dungeon and cautiously looked around. When he didn’t see anything, he sniffed the air and then strained the rest of his senses as well. It didn’t take long for him to get a mental image of the area.

His target, Big Bad, had come through here recently. There had been a brief battle between Big Bad and some other primal, but the other primal had escaped. It was still alive and not far from there.

For a moment, the figure thought of tracking down the other primal, but to his surprise and delight, it had come to him. He could see it in the distance, a natural that looked like a hummingbird. Undoubtedly, it would be able to grant flight or short bursts of speed to any who managed to make a deal with it. Those would be an ideal abilities for him to possess.

“But what would it want?” the figure mused. Of course, it was a natural type primal, which meant that it would probably be interested in food. Maybe flowers and nectar.

A second later, the hummingbird primal sensed the figure. It flashed in terror and then flew off at a blinding speed that was too fast for the figure to follow. He stared after the primal, growling in annoyance and frustration.

“Lost another one,” he growled to himself.

Lately, every single primal he got near would either run in terror or attack him on sight. And then there was Big Bad, who kept alternating between the two, depending on whether it thought it had the advantage or not.

With the hummingbird gone, the figure turned his attention back to the trail that Big Bad had left behind. It had passed through recently and it appeared to still be tracking the same invoker that it had been, though it also seemed to be taking its time.

“It has a scent,” the figure mused aloud. “It’s tracking its prey at its own leisure.”

From the direction that Big Bad was moving, it was heading straight for one of the Labyrinth exits. It was taking its time about it, but it wouldn’t be long before it arrived.

The figure scratched at his scaled chin, trying to remember if he’d ever heard any stories about primals actually leaving the Labyrinth. He had never heard of that happening before, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t.

“If that thing gets out into the real world,” the figure muttered, shuddering at the thought of what Big Bad could do to normal people.

With that, the figure picked up his pace and began moving faster, determining to stop Big Bad before it could cross over onto Earth. Even as he did this, he was fully aware of the irony of being in a life or death struggle against a giant wolf primal. Of course, that was probably the entire point of this, even if it had been over a year since the last time anyone had called him Wolf.